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Bass Holds Medicare Hostage

by: Dean Barker

Mon Jun 13, 2011 at 06:08:55 AM EDT
Representative Charlie Bass (R-NH):
Default "doesn't mean that we can't make payments on Treasury bills or other obligations," Representative Charles Bass, a New Hampshire Republican, said CNN's "State of the Union" program yesterday.

"There is a difference between strategic or technical default and default where you really don't have the economy to support the spending," Bass said. "We are not at that point yet. We could be. We could be, like some European nations."

"I think the global economy will understand that the United States has the ability to meet its obligations," Bass said. "But it's not going to be able to do it over the long term if we can't control the growth of government."

Do you see how cleverly Bass finessed that?

• Default = Bad. But: US = Mighty, so US Default = Not So Bad.
• But: Without "Controlling Growth of Gov't" = US Becomes Wimpy Socialist European Nation. So Default = Very, Very Bad.
• Therefore: Medicare turned into Vouchercare = Win for US!

Of course, Bass could be talking about cutting defense, or raising the cap on Social Security, or doing something about controlling medical costs, but there's been little or no discussion of that. There's been a lot of discussion about  Bass and his companion Frank Guinta voting for the Ryan plan to break America's promise to those 54 and younger. So let's not pretend for whom he is carrying water.

Back in Reality, a Reuter's "Factbox" says that "Missed payments will shatter investor faith in Treasuries and trigger a global selloff in U.S. government debt." And in regard to Bass' nonsense about "technical" versus "strategic" default, President Bush's CBO director flatly says:

"It's a bad idea," Holtz-Eakin said at a panel discussion of former CBO heads in Washington. "Little defaults, big defaults; default's a bad idea period and there should be no one who believes otherwise."

...He added that the market would not be easily reassured even after a brief default, likening it to wrecking one's house and then asking for a second mortgage on the property.

(find me > 140 on birch paper; on Twitter < 140)
Dean Barker :: Bass Holds Medicare Hostage
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Bass Holds Medicare Hostage | 6 comments
What's Conservative? (0.00 / 0)

What's conservative about recklessness?

Bass and Guinta need the far right so badly that they'll pander us right to the brink.

Actually, because conservatives are self-centered and blind to their (0.00 / 0)
environmental situation, their behavior is often reckless. It's the resulting disasters (like McCain crashing five planes) which render them insecure and, if they have any sense, reluctant about any change. People become fixated on control when they have none over themselves.  The instinct-driven don't.
The problem with pandering to conservatives is that what they're after is power and power is only manifest when it hurts. So, all of the injuries and injustices we aim to prevent and decry are music to their ears. Conservatives are resentful of other people's benefits and good fortune and delight in their deprivation. I suspect envy is one of the "seven deadly sins" because it is impossible to satisfy.
[ Parent ]
If the government defaults (0.00 / 0)
we can all blame the Republicans and their ideological nonsense.
Charlie Bass voted 7 times (0.00 / 0)
to increase the debt ceiling during the Bush administration.

What a basshole.  

Derogatory appellations are probably not helpful. They tell the target that (0.00 / 0)
he's gotten someone's attention and, next to power, attention is what conservatives want most. I suspect there's a double-deficit problem experienced by people who identify as conservatives. They're deficient in their ability to pay attention and never get sufficient attention. The result is that they are clueless show-offs--the class clown whose most modest achievements are hailed because they are so rare. More circumspect people, who feel inhibited by how other people might react to them, tend to give the class clown more credit than he deserves for not being concerned about making a fool of himself. Circumspect people may even confuse recklessness for bravery and applaud the self-destructive behavior, not out of meanness but by mistake.
Triangulation makes it possible for the reckless to, in effect, subcontract the risks. Which is what Bush/Cheney did by ordering the invasion of Iraq. Triangulation plus subordination makes it possible to generate mayhem without leaving any finger-prints.  Indeed, the victims don't know what hit them or why, so there's not even anyone to retaliate against. By getting someone else to act for them reckless people end up wreckless.  
[ Parent ]
Finally, (0.00 / 0)
Holding things hostage is an accurate description of the action.  However, there's still the motivation or, rather, the ulterior motive that it would be good, IMHO, to identify.  That is, the hostage taker, like the kidnapper, is basically into extortion -- the intention to take something to which the extortionist is not entitled and which isn't forth-coming unless it's coerced. Taking hostages and kidnapping involve the use of force against an innocent third party to extort a benefit without exposing oneself in a direct confrontation.  In other words, it's the strategy of the coward.

And, because we are reluctant to contest with cowards, they get away with it.

Bass Holds Medicare Hostage | 6 comments

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